HEX 2.0 the GREATEST air cooler using a Thermoelectric Heat Pump

[Sharp_3yE]

The HEX 2.0 by phononic is this new cooler that is pretty dang cool. It is small (LWH = 112mm, 95mm, 125mm) YET is suppose to be able to compete against water coolers even. They call it the "smart CPU cooler" and the reason why it's "smart" has to do with the Thermoelectic Heat Pump which is also the reason it can compete with water coolers. It also detects the temps of your cpu and will turn on and varies how hard it works. Now what is thermoelectic heat pump? Well, idk the specifics but that link is to wikipedia. What I do know is that it transfers heat from one thing to another through electrical energy.

They had a demo at E3 a few weeks ago where I found this product. I put my hand on this metal part that was about the size of a cpu heat sink, which was warm (not hot), then there was a button to press. That button turned on the thermoelectric heat pump on this demo and right away the metal part got cool. It was really "cool" for how fast it worked.

 

The Hex 2.0 comes in multiple colors (as in it is painted) and you can easily change the fan that comes with it. There is also a logo that gets displayed by led which you can change the color to.

 

The one thing about this product is that is does cost about $150. It does provide some amazing cooling in a small form factor and can compete with water cooler. So, while it can be 20-50% higher then a cheaper solution, its 20-50% or maybe 80% or what ever the percent better cooling then a cheap air cooler.

 

[NinjaJc01]

So it's basically a peltier?

[Nacho Marco Segui]

1 year warranty.... wtf

[Stefan1024]

Hmmmm can't fined a power usage number, but the 6 pinn would lead to 75 watts. Not sure how they would manage to cool an OCed 140 watt CPU with that.

 

[Sharp_3yE]

11 minutes ago, NinjaJc01 said:

So it's basically a peltier?

I guess so. Something like that. It works well but they great software that gives either something really easy to set up or more advanced options as well. It's small, has multiple colors, pretty easy to set up.

[NinjaJc01]

1 minute ago, TheCMan said:

I guess so. Something like that. It works well but they great software that gives either something really easy to set up or more advanced options as well. It's small, has multiple colors, pretty easy to set up.

But very pricey and inefficient...

[Sharp_3yE]

3 minutes ago, NinjaJc01 said:

But very pricey and inefficient...

sure, a bit pricey but it is actually very efficient. I watched a demo that kept the cpu very cool in a smaller form factor build. It's a small heat sink yet performed very well. They talked about how it performs well against even water coolers.

[Stefan1024]

1 hour ago, TheCMan said:

sure, a bit pricey but it is actually very efficient. I watched a demo that kept the cpu very cool in a smaller form factor build. It's a small heat sink yet performed very well. They talked about how it performs well against even water coolers.

You like to get rid of the heat energy of the CPU. If you need a lot of energy to do this (it has a 6 pin PCIe power connector) it's quite ineffient.

Passive coolers are quiete effient, but it's even better if you can recover some energy. My last build used no energy at all for cooling, but recovered a litte bit of electrical energy.

 

The peltier cooler is effective, but by no means efficient.

[Sharp_3yE]

12 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

You like to get rid of the heat energy of the CPU. If you need a lot of energy to do this (it has a 6 pin PCIe power connector) it's quite ineffient.

Passive coolers are quiete effient, but it's even better if you can recover some energy. My last build used no energy at all for cooling, but recovered a litte bit of electrical energy.

 

The peltier cooler is effective, but by no means efficient.

It's funny how you assume. It doesn't use power when when the cpu is under low stress. Only when your pc is under heavier load does it kick in and require more power. You can also control at what temp and how much the electricthermal kicks in to save more power. It also doesn't just turn on and is just on. It varies how much it is on and other things.

[Stefan1024]

1 minute ago, TheCMan said:

It's funny how you assume. It doesn't use power when when the cpu is under low stress. Only when your pc is under heavier load does it kick in and require more power.

The 35 watts can be exceeded quickly and the thermoelectric cooling will ramp up. And a normal air cooler uses about a watt or two, while this can take >50 watts (estimated form the max. 75 watts, but they don't provide a number).

[Sharp_3yE]

5 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

The 35 watts can be exceeded quickly and the thermoelectric cooling will ramp up. And a normal air cooler uses about a watt or two, while this can take >50 watts (estimated form the max. 75 watts, but they don't provide a number).

And my cpu fan runs 24/7. That's maybe 2 watts all the time. A pump and a couple of fans for water cooling is probably 7 or 8 watts all the time. It is priced and is suppose to be competitive with water coolers.

Even though it needs more power that doesn't mean it's inefficient. Just because a 6ft athlete consumes more calories then what I do, that doesn't mean he or she is getting fatter.

It does only turn on when the system ramps up. Otherwise it's using basically 0. It also varies how much power it's using while the system is under load smartly. It's a kind of system that uses more power when it's on.

If your device is under load very often then yea, you will use more power.

[Bcat00]

This just doesnt hit me as something that will do well. If it was able to blow water cooling temps out of the water then awesome, but.....

 

its just like someone grabbed the worst of both types and mashed it together. 

 

Its a big heat sink that sits on top of your motherboard while consuming more electricity then water cooling.

 

and theres likely some kind of noise coming out of it due to the electronic inside, which wont sit well with folks that want complete silence in their build.

 

then theres the price tag... Expensive much?

[Sharp_3yE]

On 7/2/2016 at 12:46 AM, Bcat00 said:

This just doesnt hit me as something that will do well. If it was able to blow water cooling temps out of the water then awesome, but.....

 

its just like someone grabbed the worst of both types and mashed it together. 

 

Its a big heat sink that sits on top of your motherboard while consuming more electricity then water cooling.

 

and theres likely some kind of noise coming out of it due to the electronic inside, which wont sit well with folks that want complete silence in their build.

 

then theres the price tag... Expensive much

its not big at all. Quite small, especially compared to the really good heat sinks. Sorry, you messaged a long time ago. Does it consume more energy then water coolers? I don't think either of us know this. It's not on when its idle temps. N no, it's quiet. I saw it in action. Expensive? Yea, kinda like a good water cooler. 

[Froody129]

Peltier cooling is mayyyybe 50% efficient. Within the small power budget there's no way this is realistic for any CPU that actually requires proper cooling 

[Vorg]

I had a Peltier on my 486. Worked fine for that.